


our lives have come between us

by suzukiblu



Series: Jetko Renaissance Week [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, M/M, Not Canon Compliant - The Legend of Korra, Not Compliant with Avatar Comics, Scars, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27120326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu
Summary: Jet doesn’t have any notable soulmate scars for a long time, though he knows his soulmate’s going to get a lot from him. They’re not quitescars, of course, just silhouette-imitations of them, but they sure as shit hurt like scars when they come in. Jet feels a little bad about it, once or twice, but there’s a war on. His soulmate’s going to have to be tough.They will be, he’s sure. They’re hissoulmate, after all.
Relationships: Jet/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Jetko Renaissance Week [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977535
Comments: 24
Kudos: 416
Collections: Jetko Renaissance Week





	our lives have come between us

**Author's Note:**

> Day three of Jetko Renaissance Week. The prompt was “Promises”, and I threw in soulmarks. This one may actually not be shippy/positive enough for the intentions of the week but it's what came out of my head, sooooo . . .
> 
> Accompanying art can be found [here](https://suzukiblu.tumblr.com/post/632508066420736000/illustration-for-my-day-three).

Jet doesn’t have any notable soulmate scars for a long time, though he knows his soulmate’s going to get a lot from him. They’re not quite _scars_ , of course, just silhouette-imitations of them, but they sure as shit hurt like scars when they come in. Jet feels a little bad about it, once or twice, but there’s a war on. His soulmate’s going to have to be tough. 

They will be, he’s sure. They’re his _soulmate_ , after all. 

When he’s fourteen, give or take however long on the calendar he hasn’t been paying attention to, he doubles over screaming with the worst pain he’s ever felt, and when he comes back up, there’s the shadow of a burn scar over his left eye. 

He promises himself he’s going to hurt everyone who could’ve possibly laid a hand on them, and that when he meets them, he’s going to make them forget ever being burned. 

So he hurts everyone who could’ve possibly laid a hand on them, and he waits. Of everyone in the trees, he’s got the single most obvious soulmate scar, and everyone there understands why he is the way he is about the Fire Nation. 

When he meets Aang and Katara and Sokka the three of them stare at him in surprise, like they’re recognizing something. At the time, he doesn’t even think of it, but later . . . 

“Jet,” Katara says quietly. “I need to talk to you.” 

“Sure, Katara,” he says easily, because any chance to talk to her is a chance to get her a little further on their side, and she pulls him aside and looks up at him and bites her lip with an uncertain expression. He wonders if she’s about to kiss him. Wouldn’t be the first time someone’s pulled him aside for that. 

“Your soulmate scar,” she says. “How long have you had it?” 

“Hm?” Jet blinks at her, a little surprised, and touches his face. He can’t feel the scar, of course, but he knows exactly where it is. He’s long since memorized the shape of it. “A pretty long time. Three or four years, I think?” 

“Mm.” Katara shifts uncomfortably. “Do you . . . know who it is?” 

“No,” Jet says, tilting his head with a faint frown. He really didn’t expect this topic, or at least didn’t expect it this way. Usually people talking about his soulmate scar want to talk about how awful the Fire Nation is. “Why?” 

“I think . . . I might’ve seen it before,” Katara says hesitantly. “Or one like it. I thought it was . . . a brand.” 

“A brand?” Jet’s attention sharpens. 

“It was on a firebender,” Katara says, and Jet’s stomach turns to ice. “I’m not sure, but . . . it goes back over your ear, right? The whole thing?” 

“Yeah,” Jet says, feeling a little distant from his body. He tucks his hair back behind his ear to show her. “It does.” 

She grimaces. He flicks his straw to the opposite side of his mouth, slowly . . . absorbing, he supposes. Absorbing. Yeah. 

“He attacked our village. And the village of a friend of ours. He’s been . . . chasing us." She trails off, touching her necklace. “He was looking for Aang. He’s _been_ looking for him, apparently. He’s trying to capture him for the Fire Lord.” 

“A firebender with a burn scar?” Jet says. 

“Yes,” she says. 

“Must be a pretty shitty firebender,” he says, raising his eyebrows at her. She looks startled, and lets a short laugh escape. 

“I . . . don’t know,” she says slowly. “Maybe, yeah. I never really thought about it before. I just thought he must’ve done it to himself, to look . . . scary.” 

“And it looks like mine,” Jet says. 

“Yes,” Katara says. “I’m sorry.” 

Jet grins easily at her, tilting his head the other way. It takes far too much effort, but he’s good at hiding that kind of thing. 

“What for?” he asks lightly. “I’m a freedom fighter. I can handle one shitty firebender.” 

“If he’s really your soulmate, though . . .” Katara says, twisting her fingers in her necklace. She has a little scar on her thumb; it looks like maybe a knife slipped at some point. Aang has the shadow of it on his own thumb. Jet wonders if they’ve noticed yet. 

“Then the spirits made a mistake,” he says. They say the spirits never make mistakes, but Jet figures this is pretty immediate and obvious proof that they do. If it’s really the same scar, anyway. It still might not be. 

But if it is. 

His jaw tries to tighten. He doesn’t let it. 

“I’m sorry,” Katara says again, and Jet grins at her again. 

“It’s okay,” he tells her. “The important thing is stopping the Fire Nation. Everything else is just details.” 

“It’s still not fair,” Katara with the _Avatar_ for her soulmate says with more empathy and compassion than Jet’s ever heard, and he keeps grinning. 

Later . . . later, when she’s got him iced to a tree . . . 

She doesn’t sound that way, later. 

“I should’ve known,” she mutters darkly, and he isn’t sorry at all to whistle the signal to bring down the dam. 

So what, he thinks, after. So what if he’s got a firebender’s scar on his face. It doesn’t change anything. Doesn’t make a difference. Doesn’t _mean_ anything. 

So what, he thinks, and tries to scrub it off with icy meltwater. 

If it really is a firebender’s scar . . . 

Well. He knows what to do with firebenders, doesn’t he. 

And in the meantime . . . in the meantime, he’s going to keep hurting everyone who could’ve possibly laid a hand on them. And when he meets them, well . . . 

Then he’ll know what’s going to happen next, he guesses. 

They’re his soulmate. They’re going to have to be tough.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr!](http://suzukiblu.tumblr.com/)


End file.
